17th June 2021.
LEARNING TO PRAY IN THE MODEL OF THE LORD'S PRAYER
The Lord’s prayer is indeed a summary of the entire Gospel. Jesus gave us this prayer as the model of our personal petitions to God. Through this prayer, we are called to entrust our entire life to him. It is called "the Lord's prayer " in that Jesus Himself gave it to us as a way of teaching us to pray. The prayer of our Father is ever ancient and ever new with few words which bring great impact. Everything we need to know about life and prayer is contained in this wonderful prayer. In it, we find several petitions to God which include:
1. Praising God.
Jesus wants us to begin our prayers by praising God and acknowledging His great name. He wants us to call God "Abba, Father". His name is worth of our praises for his goodness to all humanity. We all belong to the family of God hence, we are all his sons and daughters. He loves us as his children, likewise, we should love him as children loves their fathers. God as our father is our friend and we should relate with him through love and not with fear. St Ignatius of Loyola encourages Christians to pray to God as “one friend speaks to another ".
2. The will of God and our needs.
Every believer should trust in divine providence of God. God in his own generosity provides us with what we need most. He is a caring and generous God. We should not be scared or be ashamed to present our needs to him. Whatever we are and have are blessings and benefits from God, therefore we should present our petitions to him with a lot of faith and trust but above all to seek his divine will. To do the will of God means that we are able to see clearly and accept that what He wants is always what is the best for us. Our will and God's will should be in perfect harmony.
3. Seeking to be forgiven and to learn to forgive.
God is full of mercy and love. He is ready to pardon our sins at all times. Like the prodigal father, God is always ready to receive us back to him as his sons and daughters. He doesn't want any to get lost. The Church has given us the Sacrament of confession as a way of being reconciled to God and to others. Just as he easily forgives us we should be quick and ready to forgive one another. God does not hold grudges neither should we hold grudges to others.
4. Avoiding temptation and overcome evil.
Our loving Father would not want us to be tempted. The devil is an enemy of every Christian and he wants to lure us to himself at all times. His promises are empty and attractive. When we successfully resist temptations whether huge or small we glorify God. God has given us the grace to resist and overcome the lures of the devil. We acknowledge our weaknesses and our total dependence on God's help even in difficult situations.
My dear brothers and sisters, the Lord's prayer is the most ideal form of prayer that Jesus taught us. It is not centered on ourselves rather it is centered and focused on God. God knows all our needs and everything that is inside our hearts and minds. He is always ready to help us. We only require to approach him with faith and trust. We should spend more time and effort in prayer, reaching out to the Lord and allowing him to speak to us in the depth of our hearts. Let's offer our Lord quality time through prayer by listening to him as he speaks to us. Every day we should say " Lord teach us to pray" Remember we do not pray to tell God what he already knows about us, we pray so that we will realise more deeply our needs and our total dependence on him.
I wish you a blessed day.
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